A final key component that we use in our weekly meetings (all hands “kickoff” and leadership L10”) and other team meetings is a weekly scorecard. The scorecard consists of 7-10 metrics that are predictive in nature and include strict definitions (including where to source and acquire each metric) and a single accountable owner on the leadership team.
The purpose of the scorecard is to give everyone a quick way to understand if things are on track or not. If you’re on a well deserved vacation, sipping a cold drink on a warm beach, you should be able to look at the scorecard and quickly know if you can stay another week, or if you need to rush to the airport and catch the next plane home.
Many folks ask: what’s a predictive metric? Well, think of it like looking through the windshield of a car instead of the rear view mirror. For instance, revenue is a metric that looks backward, whereas number of new qualified signups each week is an indicator of future revenue.
To get to our scorecard metrics, we start with a goal (e.g. one new big customer) and then repeatedly ask ourselves: Great! What happens before that? If you ask that question about 5-7 times, you’re likely to get pretty darn close to a predictive metric!